. . . . The story
of Osiris is one of
Egypts most ancient myths. So old, it's origins have been lost in
time. It was an important story to the Egyptians because of Osiris'
role as the king of Egypt who is resurrected as the "King of the
dead". A king that every Egyptian, from the mightiest pharaoh to the
lowliest peasant, hoped to join in the afterlife. Other important
themes that we find in the story are; the trials of Isis in which she
is idolized as a dutiful wife and protective mother. And the revenge
of Horus the son of Osiris against his evil uncle Seth, which is a powerful
struggle of good verses evil. In an effort
to avoid confusion you should be aware that there are two forms of
the god Horus in
this story, first we find him as the brother of Osiris, then later we
find him called Harpocrates or Horus the infant son of Osiris.

. . . . It may be worth noting that in
all the vast amount of text that we have from the ancient Egyptians,
we find no complete version of this tale. We find only pieces,
references and additions to it. This version of the story comes to us
from a Greek writer named, Plutarch, who lived in the first century
A.D.

Ra..............King
of
the
gods.Nut............Sky goddess, mother of Osiris.Geb............Earth God, father of Osiris.Thoth..........God of wisdom.
Silene..........Moon goddess.Osiris..........King of the deadHorus..........Brother of Osiris.Seth............Evil brother of Osiris.Harpocrates...Horus the infant, son of Osiris.Isis............Sister & wife of Osiris.Nephthys......Sister of Osiris.

The lord of all the earth is born.

In the beginning,
there
was the mighty god Ra and his wife Nut. Nut was in love with the god Geb. When Ra found out about this union he was furious. In his
rage, he forbid Nut to have children on any of the 360 days that
currently made up the year. Nut was very sad. She called on her friend,
Thoth, to
help
her. He knew that Ra's curse must be fulfilled, but he had an idea.
Thoth engaged the moon goddess, Silene, in a wager. At the time, Silene's light (the moon) rivaled
the light of Ra (the sun). Thoth was victorious, he was rewarded with
one seventh of Silene's light. This is why the moon now wanes each
month. Thoth took this light and added five days to the calender,
bringing the year from 360 days to 365. This gave Nut 5 days on which
she could have children, while at the same time obeying Ra's
commandment. On the first of these days, Nut gave birth to Osiris. On
the second day Horus was born, Seth on the third, Isis the fourth, and
Nephthys on the fifth day. At the time of Osiris' birth, a loud voice
was heard all over the world, saying, "The lord of all the earth is
born."

Osiris the mighty king.

Osiris grew and
became
a mighty king. He went about the job of civilizing his people. He
taught them agriculture and animal husbandry. He gave them a code of
laws to live by and showed them the proper ways in which to worship the
gods. Egypt became a mighty land under his kind and gentle rule. His
subjects gladly worshiped the ground on which he walked. When Egypt was
civilized, Osiris left to bring his teachings to other lands. While
Osiris was away, he left his wife, Isis, in charge. She ruled the
country in the same fashion. But Osiris had an enemy, his bitter and
jealous brother Seth.

Seth plots against the king.

Seth began
scheming
against the great king. He aligned himself with Aso, the queen of
Ethiopia, and 72 other conspirators. But nothing could be done while
Isis ruled the country, Her authority was unquestionable. Upon Osiris'
return, an evil plot was put into motion. Seth secretly acquired the
measurements of Osiris and began having a wonderfully decorated box
built to fit those measurements. When the box was finished, Seth had a
great feast to which he invited Osiris and the 72 conspirators. Having
absolutely no evil in him, Osiris suspected nothing. When the feasting
was done, Seth had the box brought out. He offered it as a gift to
anyone whom the box fit. One at a time they tried to fit into the box
until it was Osiris' turn. He layed in the box suspecting nothing. The
conspirators slammed the lid, nailed it closed, and poured molten lead
in the seam to seal his fate. They threw the great chest into the Nile
river. Osiris was never seen again, walking in the land of the living.

Isis grieves for Osiris.

This news reached
Isis
and she was grief stricken. She put on her dress of mourning and set
about trying to find the body of her husband. She knew well, the dead
could not rest until they have had a proper funeral. Isis searched
long, but found nothing. She asked every man and every woman if they
had seen the giant box that contained her husband, but no one had.
Finally, Isis asked some children who were playing by the Nile. They
told her where Seth and the conspirators had thrown the chest into the
river. After further investigation, and consultation with some demons,
Isis learns that the chest had floated out to sea, to the land of
Byblos and become lodged in a tamarisk bush. As if by magic the bush
shot up and became a magnificent tree. The towering tree enclosed the
ornate box within its huge trunk. The king of Byblos admired the great
tree so much that he had it cut down and made into a giant pillar to
support the roof of his palace.

Isis in the land of Byblos.

Meanwhile, Isis
makes
her way to the land of Byblos to recover the body of her husband. In
Byblos Isis sits by a fountain and talks to no one, except the queen of
Byblos' maidens. To these maidens she is quite pleasant, she braids
their hair and breaths on them a wonderful perfume sweeter then the
most fragrant flowers. Upon their return to the palace, the queen asks
them, how they came by such wonderful perfume. They told her of the
beautiful stranger they had met. The queen requested that Isis be
brought to the palace where she was treated most graciously. She was
appointed to be the nurse of one of the young princes.

Isis fed the
young
prince by giving him her finger to suck. Each night when the palace had
retired Isis piled logs on a great fire, into which she would thrust
the child. Then she would change into a swallow and flutter about
mournfully chirping for her dead husband. Word of these strange
happenings reached the queen. She could not believe these tales, so she
decided to see for herself. That night, she hid herself, and sure
enough, Isis built a fire and thrust the child in it. The queen
squealed in terror and scrambled to save the child. Isis turned on the
queen and rebuking her sternly, revealed her true identity. Explaining
to the queen that with her magic she was tempering the child to be a
god. But now his immortality was lost. Isis explained to the queen why
she had made the journey to Byblos and her desire to have the giant
pillar in which her husband was encased. The queen granted her wish.

Isis Returns to Egypt.

The pillar was
taken
down, cut open, and the great box was revealed. Isis took the chest and
returned to Egypt but the mighty pillar remained in Byblos and was
worshiped from that day forward. When she arrived, she opened the box
and wept over her dead husband. She was joined by her sister, Nephthys in her sorrow. The
sisters turn into Kites and circle the chest screeching in mournful
tones. But Isis' thoughts soon turned to her infant
son, Harpocrates,
Horus the younger. She had left him in Buto and now had to retrieve
him. She hid the box in a secret place, and went after her son.

Seth's evil revisited.

That night, while
hunting by the light of the moon, Seth stumbled upon the finely
decorated box. He was blinded with rage at the sight of his brother. He
ripped Osiris into fourteen pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt.
Isis learns of this new crime, and her grief is renewed. She once again
sets out to find her husbands remains. She used a boat made out of
papyrus reeds to conduct her search. It was believed that, because of
this, a crocodile would never attack a papyrus boat, fearing that it
might contain the mighty goddess. Where ever she finds a piece of
Osiris, she buries it, and builds a shrine in that place. This is the
reason that Osiris has so many tombs in Egypt.

The revenge of Horus.

In the meantime,
Harpocrates has grown to manhood, and he is called Horus. Osiris has
been resurrected as the king of the dead in the underworld. One day,
Osiris appears to Horus in the land of the living. He convinces Horus
to avenge the wrongs that have been committed by Seth. So, Horus tracks
down Seth and a huge
battle begins. Victory is elusive and the
battle turns first to one side, then to the other. It is said that this
battle of good verses evil still rages, but some day, Horus will be
victorious and on that day, Osiris will return to rule the world.